Thread: Basic Design Elements for Belly Dance Promotional Materials and Websites

Hi Everyone! I wrote a new article called, "Basic Design Elements for Belly Dance Promotional Materials and Websites." Please check it out and let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Andalee Belly Dance - Articles

Nice article, Andalee. No questions, but a suggestion if you decide to do a second edition down the road.... Under your discussion of fonts, I'd suggest adding something about using Arabic script (particularly for dancers who want to market themselves to Arab audiences):

1. Resist the temptation to use faux-Arabic fonts like Arafat Ibn Blady, Alhambra, Psuedo Saudi, and so on. Script-y fonts like Papyrus are fine, but stay away from fonts that look like Arabic to people who can't read Arabic. They may seem cool to you, but when someone who CAN read Arabic sees them, they'll assume you're an ignorant dingdong who doesn't understand that Arabic script is more than squiggles with random dots for decoration. Arabs are very proud of their artistic tradition of calligraphy. Don't disrespect their language by turning their writing into a weird cartoon. Those fonts are difficult for speakers of either language to read anyway.

2. If you decide to add actual Arabic script corresponding to your name, contact information, etc., to your web site, check, check, and triple check that what you have there is sensible Arabic. You are not going to impress anyone with mistakes. That means the words are spelled properly and heading in the correct right-to-left direction, with all letters joined appropriately. If you're not sure how to do this on your own, find someone who does or just don't put that content online. If you do ask someone to help you with an Arabic translation, make sure it is a person you know to be both knowledgeable and trustworthy. (We've all heard urban legends of club owners in the old days who would give naive dancers names that were the equivalents of "Clumsy" and "Fatso.") It's also a good idea to ask more than one person to look at your text. Often what you want to translate is an idiom, and a literal translation may not make sense.

Adhering to the KISS rule, is probably the best tip for design: "Keep it simple, stupid." This is doubly so if you have a website along with your printed materials. You can put all the details on the website. The printed pieces can be simple and eye-catching.

More explanation of the term hi-res/print quality (300 DPI) and lo-res/web quality (72 DPI) is necessary. There is also RGB (for web) and CMYK (for print). These are two issues that printers battle with constantly. The third is MS Publisher, but that's a whole different story.

I have to disagree with the part about not using Times. Good, simple, solid fonts can be great for body copy and even work for logos in the right context. Now, Brush Script... just say no to Brush Script.

As far as website go, CSS is your friend. Design using style sheets makes things much easier and more versatile. Want to change the look across your entire site? Update your CSS. It's a beautiful thing.

Great article. Your website design itself is very clean and I love the design. Just out of interest, what font did you use on the article? I like it.

On the PDF? Futura. I use it on all of my print materials. I know it's like one of the most popular fonts on the planet, but I love it for its clean lines.


Link to huge file here:http://www.squidspot.com/Periodic_Ta...aces_large.jpg

Great stuff Andalee. Thanks for sharing.

Sometimes its good to have all that information collected together.

Really useful info. I'm just setting up a website at the moment and there's a few tips there that I hadn't thought of.

My major advice to anyone is fairly obvious - check the spelling and grammar and then get a few other people to check. I'm always amazed at how many flyers you see that have misused apostrophies or spelling errors.

Thanks Andalee, for the article and also for the table of typefaces - it's a great time-saver and will also look great printed out.

I'd also like to add to Roguepen's list of Brush Script as a "just say no-to-font" - Just say "no" to Comic Sans!

-Devora

OMG, I totally forgot to mention comic sans...it is so far out of my current reality, that I forget it even exists!

I've noticed that many dancers' websites in the U.S. do not clearly identify the city and state where the dancer is located. I've learned this when investigating someone who offers classes or workshops and then searching high and low on their website to see where the heck they are. You sometimes need to search through various pages to find this info, and believe it or not, sometimes just the street address is provided with the city and state omitted from the contact info, necessitating a further internet search or determining the location by looking at the phone number. Anything in print, particularly on the Internet since it's viewable internationally, should be written so that it provides complete info to those who have never heard of you and are not locals.

Full contact info, including a complete mailing or physical address (particularly for those who conduct classes), should take no more than one click to locate. It can either appear in a tiny font at the bottom of the home page or be available by clicking a "Contact" link on the home page.

-Devora

Thanks, Andalee - I wish I could forget comic sans, too! Way too many staff folks select this font as the default for their Microsoft Outlook emails, occasionally accompanied with a flower or butterfly in the signature. Unprofessional for office use and frankly, pretty ugly, IMO.

-Devora

Do a browser check, using www.browershorts.org and check it fairly often! This basically shows you what your website looks like from several different browsers-takes a while to load, but absolutely necessary to spot nonconforming websites.

I learned this the hard way-my husband built me a gorgeous site several months ago and everything was great. We checked the site thoroughly and left it at that. I accidentally discovered a few of months later that Internet Explorer put out an update, and my site was no longer visible to IE users =( They could see a partial background pic, but no words!
Internet Explorer is notorious for these sorts of problems-the company we use for web templates (Rocket Theme for Joomla) has even decided they will no longer try to cater to IE in their newer templates. But half my viewers use IE, so I can't ignore them-I check my site out every 2 or so now, just to be safe.
Nikki

Originally Posted by Devora

I've noticed that many dancers' websites in the U.S. do not clearly identify the city and state where the dancer is located. I've learned this when investigating someone who offers classes or workshops and then searching high and low on their website to see where the heck they are.

Full contact info, including a complete mailing or physical address (particularly for those who conduct classes), should take no more than one click to locate. It can either appear in a tiny font at the bottom of the home page or be available by clicking a "Contact" link on the home page.

I think this is because dancers want to have it both ways. They want the publicity of being on the web, but they don't want the security hassles of being too honest about where they are. Particularly if you aren't meticulous in covering your tracks, uploading too much personal information can put you a short step away from having some nut sitting in a car in front of your house. Unlike other professions where you have a separate workplace, a lot of gigging dancers use their homes as their business offices. If you make it too difficult to reach you, you'll lose potential customers, but if you make it too blatantly easy, that's not always safe. Giving out only half of your information online seems like a good idea, but it's really not. If you want to be available to customers, then you need a separate phone line and mailing address so that you can conduct business efficiently without putting the privacy of your residence in jeopardy.

Originally Posted by Devora

Thanks, Andalee - I wish I could forget comic sans, too! Way too many staff folks select this font as the default for their Microsoft Outlook emails, occasionally accompanied with a flower or butterfly in the signature. Unprofessional for office use and frankly, pretty ugly, IMO.

-Devora

I worked for the council in a centre arranging activities for children and all of our publicity was in comic sans. It's not my personal favourite for the reasons everyone else has said, but I thought it might be worth mentioning that we used it because apparently it's the easiest type for people with learning difficulties to read.

URL corrections browsershots.com: The Leading Search Engines Site on the Net Thanks very much for posting this one - I've been looking for a utility for testing my website in different browsers.

Originally Posted by micamica

Do a browser check, using www.browershorts.org and check it fairly often! This basically shows you what your website looks like from several different browsers-takes a while to load, but absolutely necessary to spot nonconforming websites.

I learned this the hard way-my husband built me a gorgeous site several months ago and everything was great. We checked the site thoroughly and left it at that. I accidentally discovered a few of months later that Internet Explorer put out an update, and my site was no longer visible to IE users =( They could see a partial background pic, but no words!
Internet Explorer is notorious for these sorts of problems-the company we use for web templates (Rocket Theme for Joomla) has even decided they will no longer try to cater to IE in their newer templates. But half my viewers use IE, so I can't ignore them-I check my site out every 2 or so now, just to be safe.
Nikki

www.browershorts.org

Link is broken...

Good article, Andalee! I agree with Tourbeau's suggestion of including the importance of not using the fake-Arabic fonts for all the reasons she stated. I also agree with Roguepen's and Devora's points. Thanks for making this information available in an easy to understand way.

ETA I was very lucky to have some great advice from a friend who has a degree in design when I was updating my website a few months ago. Her advice was the same as what is in your article plus Tourbeau's, Roguepen's, and Devora's additions.

I love that clever Periodic table!

I must get one of those periodic tables for my office. So, when my boss comes in and asks about another font I can just point to the wall. (I have several hundred fonts on my computer and I'm not going to get into how much I really hate my boss standing over my shoulder while I work.)

My favorite font geek bit...

[ame=http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766]Font Conference - CollegeHumor video[/ame]

Unfortunately, Comic Sans saves the day. (Personally, I prefer Lemonade or Kindergarten.)

Originally Posted by Tourbeau

I think this is because dancers want to have it both ways. They want the publicity of being on the web, but they don't want the security hassles of being too honest about where they are. Particularly if you aren't meticulous in covering your tracks, uploading too much personal information can put you a short step away from having some nut sitting in a car in front of your house. Unlike other professions where you have a separate workplace, a lot of gigging dancers use their homes as their business offices. If you make it too difficult to reach you, you'll lose potential customers, but if you make it too blatantly easy, that's not always safe. Giving out only half of your information online seems like a good idea, but it's really not. If you want to be available to customers, then you need a separate phone line and mailing address so that you can conduct business efficiently without putting the privacy of your residence in jeopardy.

But its' impossible to get hired for a gig or attract a student without a city name. How can I hire you for my party or know I want to take a class from you if you might be 3,000 miles away from me?

It renders the entire website absolutely worthless.

Roguepen, I love the font video!

Originally Posted by Lauren_

But its' impossible to get hired for a gig or attract a student without a city name. How can I hire you for my party or know I want to take a class from you if you might be 3,000 miles away from me?

It renders the entire website absolutely worthless.

If you don't have your own non-home studio space where you can receive mail, then as someone doing business as a professional dancer, you should have a PO Box. That way you have an address (with a city and state) to give to customers and to mail contracts to and from, but you don't have to tell them the name of the street where you live. Don't list your private-residence phone number anywhere as part of your dance identity where someone can use an online reverse lookup to get your home address. List your cell phone or register a second number under your business name in the local area code instead.

Yes, it is more expensive to maintain the facade of being an independent professional entity, but if you want to do business, then you have to think like a business.

Originally Posted by bintbeled

Roguepen, I love the font video!

Me too!

Loved the video!

If you really have an issue with web stalkers getting your address, just remember to check the WHOIS information on your domain registration, too. Your name and address will be on there unless you had someone else register your domain or you have paid the registrar to lock information.

It's a small thing but the information is out there. You can check here to see your domain information: WHOIS Search for Domain Registration Information | Network Solutions

In line with what Devora said: when posting class and event information make sure to include the year in the date. I have found, while searching for classes and events, that sometimes I can not make heads or tails of what year something is happening. I've been very excited about a certain class or workshops only to realize I was a year (or more) behind everyone else.

That font video is brilliant!

"HOURGLASS! MAILBOX! MAILBOX!" ..l;,